Attribution theory

Is the idea that when we are successful, we point to internal forces that got us there. We are likely to give ourselves credit for making the right moves.

When we fail though, we are more likely to blame external forces. “The dog ate my homework.”

That’s because our narrative works overtime to protect us from ourselves. We don’t want to be wrong, we don’t want blame, we don’t want to be judged. Everything is okay.

But not everything is always going to be okay.

Often, we make mistakes. We don’t need to blame the weather for running late when we should have left the house earlier (which really means we should have just gone to bed earlier the night before). And when things are working in our favor, if we are actually being objective, we can point to an area where we have received advantage.